The Tale in Between
by Lunar Night
Summary: Taking place after the end of Jachin Due, Kira must now take arms to find his reason to live and to stop the arising of new conflict, however, without the help of Freedom, Kira will find that his will and heart alone may not be enough.
1. Those with SEED

LN: Well simply speaking this is a rewrite of the first chapter after I began working on my third, why you ask? Two rather simple reasons. Firstly because this chapter sucks, for those of you who don't think so, sweet...for those of you who do, this is why I'm repenting. Not to mention I just needed some time off from the third chapter, but hey that just doesn't sound as good. Anyways here we go, the first chapter of the T**he Tale in Between.**

**------------------------------------- **

**The Tale in Between  
_Those with SEED_**

**-----------------------------------**

Kira gazed from his rocking chair up into the sky, the stars, a place where he had once lived for a good portion of his life.

He had built the chair himself, not the most impressive piece of art considering it came from the hands of the ultimate coordinator.

_Well...maybe all I'm good for is war...and now that it's over, what's there left for me really?_

The world seemed somewhat dull to him now...everything slowed down in terms of pace following short in comparison to the battles he had. The emotional disputes, the pain, the sadness but never the less, the happiness when he realized that his efforts made sure that his friends could live, even if it was only one day longer, even if he would have to kill to do it again.

Kira got up from his chair, he would go for a walk to the beach, if he had to be honest, there really wasn't much else to do.

From behind him, he could hear the soft voice of Lacus, singing to the children to put them to sleep, it seemed that they had managed to pull a fast one on her and stayed up late after all.

She would be out there to join him soon, no doubt to share a walk with him. It seemed sometimes strange to him, why he was attracted to her and her to him. If it was love, Kira denied it, as far as he could tell there was nothing quite like love between the two of them. He could feel how Cagalli and Athrun felt for each other, and he could tell that something like that was love, but him and Lacus?

Maybe he would ask her one of these days, but before that, he supposed he had to find out for himself first.

"A night stroll again Kira?" Lacus smiled gently, there was something beyond captivating within that smile_...kindness._

"Do I ask you the same question a lot?"

Lacus seemed slightly curious at the sudden question Kira placed on her, "Always, you're always wondering why, why you're alive, what it was that you did, and above all, whether it was right. Right?"

Kira stood up, his eyes now turned towards the ocean view ahead of him.

"How do I find the answer? I want to know, beyond anything Lacus, maybe even beyond staying here, and beyond the peace."

"You do want it Kira, more so than anything else. I know you well enough."

Lacus picked up an envelope from a wooden mailbox nailed beside the door of the house.

"I have in my hands a request Kira," Her voice turned stern, she lost the smile, and sometimes Kira had to admit, he feared her, who she was, or even what she was. "This letter will certainly not answer your question, but it may bring you to a place that might."

Lacus twirled and danced to the moonlight a bit as Kira watched her, he could hear a slow hum comming from her mouth, Lacus had probably managed to come up with a new song, maybe she would share it with him when he managed to start paying attention to living.

Her eyes seemed slightly dabbed with mist as traces of water were on her cheeks, "Even if it brings you sorrow again Kira, would you truly desire your answer?"

For a moment Kira hesitated, he could see that whatever was in the letter, it pained Lacus, and she was sure that it would do the same, if not more to him.

Kira clasped his hands over hers as he felt the warmth and kindness spread through him, maybe he did love Lacus after all, even if not so, he was now quite certain that she at least felt greater affection towards him than just friendship. He wasn't quite sure why, but it gave him some comfort knowing that.

"If I must live in peace unable to know the truth, unable to be happy because of something that may seem so ridiculous, than I would rather face the sorrow of the battlefield once more in order to find out, just why it is that I still live, and what it means to continue living."

Lacus smiled kindly and handed him the letter, "Remember Kira, the battlefield does not bring sorrow to only yourself, I hope you can remember that no matter what may happen." Lacus streaked down blending in with the moonlight as she continued her stroll by herself, Lacus Clyne is incredible, for not the first time in his life, he felt the same way, and he felt grateful that he had met her.

Kira slowly tore the envelope open, inside was an old fashion letter, hand-written even, which surprised him, for a letter with no mailing/return addresse, whoever sent it was rather bold if he didn't want his identity known.

**Lt. Yamato, or should you prefer, Kira:**

**I will not stray from the point, as this letter does not allow me the freedom to do so. Lt. Yamato, I have obtained from various sources that you have spent the past 6 months after the war isolated in an island off the coasts of ORB. Due to your isolation, I would believe that you are no longer quite knowledgable about the politics of the current world.  
Very simply speaking, the situation on Earth is rather restless, unlike PLANT, the many factors on Earth have never been quite able to be well united, as such there are nations right now who are beginning to become restless due to being stirred by other comflicting nations and the lack of ability of the Atlantic Federation to act upon it.  
This is where you are needed, the current nation of Palevillia is a country with numerous problems, sources have indicated that there could very well be an uprising against the Atlantic Federation coming to fruitation in that country, basically I am asking you to stop it.**

**Regardless of the fact that I said this letter allows me little Freedom to discuss off-track matters, I believe I must adresse why I have asked for your assistance and how I am to persuade you. **

**You are a member of the nation of ORB, the only independent country which is powerful enough to uphold that status. As such your country can provide you with a significant amount of power that you will need, and I believe much may be needed. And because you are Kira Yamato, you are under no restrictions with ORB, thus military procedures allowing me to borrow ORB soldiers would be able to be overseen, as I currently cannot reveal myself.  
As for how I am to persuade you, well that is rather easy. I have been in wars, far more than you yourself, although I can't say that it is more epical than what you have experienced, but when I say that i know what you are going through, I mean it. As such I believe from your isolation in ORB that you are searching for something, something I believe you can only find on the battlefield, that is why I asked you Lt. Yamato.**

**Ultimately of course, the decision is still yours.**

**Yours Truly, Major Otamay **

"Well Kira?" Kira lifted his head to see Lacus coming back from her walk, it seems he had been more absorbed in his letter than he thought.

"I feel like I'm piece being used in the game, and that you're one of the players Lacus."

"If that were true, then checkmate is still far away in this game."

"No one can see the whole game completely."

"But we always guess anyways, and sometimes we guess right."

"While other times we guess wrong."

Lacus turned her back to Kira and started trotting back into the house, "And it all depends on what the stakes are, doesnt it?"

----------------------------------------------- 

"How far complete is it?"

"Give it another 3 weeks or so, it'll be done by then."

The first voice sighed, the construction period was almost over, they could soon fulfill their dreams. He took out a picture from his pocket, it had been slightly crumppled but he seemed to treasure it quite dearly.

"Your daughter?"

The first voice looked at the second voice, "Yeah, it was the last picture I took of her before Jachin Due, not many survived like me."

"But those who did are said to be the best huh?"

"Of course, and among the best are the ones the Gundam Pilots."

"Gundam? I thought that name wasn't official."

"It's not, but for those of us who experienced their power in the war, we refused to call it anything else, nothing else was enough."

"Well, can't say I ever experienced all that, but they say the strongest one of them was Freedom, that stolen suit."

"It was beyond legendary...but now, even if it does show up, we'll crush it, for our revolution. For revenge."

"Well, nothing so big grand scheme and morale for me, I just wanna see this baby start up."

The second voice looked up towards the mobile suit that he had been adjusting while chatting. A black mobile suit, it was a standard size, probably designed with mobility in mind. In a sense, the technician believed that the suit resembled very much GATX-103. Yet that was only on the surface, its capabilities varied intensely from the Buster, mainly because it was based on mobility, the suit would have a nice beam cannon of course, but without it, he doubted that anything present could really match its speed. He had seen portions of the specs on Freedom, he had to say that despite him being proud and all, it wasn't better than the freedom, but it sure wasn't any worse.

**-------------------------------------------------------------------------**

Walking inside Morganraete brought strange memories to Kira, the astray units piled in from production line were put in their independent hangars and a few dozen engineers roamed around doing routined checks and tune-ups.

Kira walked directly into Ramius' office and bowed down before she had to chance to see who had entered.

"I need to borrow a mobile suit."

"K..Kira-kun?"

"Kira, theres no need Lacus has already come by to me."

Kira looked up at Ramius, somewhat astonished, Lacus seemed quite capable of reading his mind.

Ramius sipped on her coffee (Bartdfield Breed), as she continued, "I've arranged for you to use the Murasume, its the newest model that ORB has developed and seems ideale if you're going by yourself, unfortunately Lacus couldn't tell me what you need it for and from your expression I don't think you will either."

"Gomen, I..."

"Quite alright Kira-kun, I own you more than just this favour anyways. It's been slightly adjusted from the standard Murasume we plan to mass produce, all I ask is that you try to bring it back in one piece and see what kind of data specs you can keep intact and bring back."

"Thank you captain."

Ramius got up and poured herself another cup of coffee and offered it to Kira this time, "drink it, and stop calling me captain."

**-------------------------------**

LN:So what do you think for the first chapter? Trust me when I say that it'll get more epical and stuff. The first chapter is basically just an introduction to the ideas of everything, I plan on playing a lot more with this...given time that is.

LN: O and uhhh, as just about every author says, Read and Review.


	2. Soldier

LN: Ok well just 2 things that I kinda wanna mention before we get started, first of all, sometime in the near future I plan on going back and re-editing chapter 1 since I read it and it kinda sucks. I originally started this out of the sake of killing time, but as I kept writing it kinda got interesting, so I might as well make it good. O and uhh...

Chibi-Athrun: And I'm the sidehosts for this show, in case you didnt know, chibi means mini.

LN: Right, but that's not quite what I was getting at.

Chibi-Athrun: I know, you don't own any scrap of Gundam Seed or else you'd be pretty rich by now. So don't sue him, not that you'd get much from it anyways.

LN: Putting that aside, lets get started.

**----------------------------------**

**Tale in Between  
_Soldier_**

**---------------------------------**

Athrun Zala took his usual patrol route at the assembly hall to make sure that everything was clear before Cagalli would make her entrance. Usually the worst that would happen was some minor bugging here and there. In the worst case scenerio, being a few months ago, there had been a minor attempt at kidnapping in order to meet certain demands from the government about certain new founded policies.

"All clear Alex?" Athrun turned around to acknowledge the voice and nodded to it. He really didn't like the name Alex, true he couldn't go parading around telling everyone that he's the son of Patrick Zala and all, but really now, did he have to use Alex?

He took a round about route back towards the front gate, Cagalli would probably be here by the time he got there.

"Athrun..."

Athrun lifted his hand gun from his belt pouch and immediatly flanked it behind him towards whoever had just somehow knew his name and called it out.

It happened to be Kira.

He lowered the gun and breathed a sigh of relief, "Geez Kira, don't do that to me."

Kira held up his hands defensively, "Sorry about that, didn't mean it."

"Come on, we'll talk as we move, Cagalli would be glad to see you anyways."

"It's been a while since I last met the two of you." Kira remembered back to 2 months ago when Cagalli and Athrun had managed to pull some time out to have dinner with him and Lacus.

"Well, Cagalli seems to have gotten awfully busy with the new plans for Morganraete and weapons development. Plus you guys never come over."

"Well, it'd be slightly difficult for Lacus for make an appearance, even in Orb." Athrun knew that it was more like a valid excuse. He could somewhat understand though, it was one thing spending time with Cagalli and making sure she was safe, but he himself couldn't quite stand all those other politicians and they way they did things most of the time.

Kira and Athrun both arrived at the front of the assembly hall. Cagalli was the first to come in, she managed to sneak a peek at Athrun and leave him with a little wink, and she certainly couldn't hold her surprise when she saw Kira there.

Kira gave her a small wave before she made herself turn forward and continue walking, the representative of Orb sure needed to retain her image. Kira amused himself with the thought, it seemed she wasn't doing too bad of a job.

"We can find a place near by and talk." Kira nodded, and followed Athrun to an empty guard station inside the assembly hall. Here he could make sure that they would have a secure conversation and he would manage to keep a look-out on anything that happened at the podium.

"I need your help with something Athrun."

"Hmm?" Now Athrun was interested, he'd never thought Kira would need quite anything now, he seemed satisfied sometimes, yet Athrun could also notice that he was bored and confused still. Athrun had enough to keep him busy, and happy even, yet even he couldn't deny that this had been one of the few things he could have done now that it was peace time, the only thing that was close enough to matching the speed of war time.

"You know about that simulation system Morganraete developed lately?"

"Yeah, based on the data of the Gundam specs, I tested it out once even, quite astonishing how well they worked out all the details." So it wasn't going to be something simple like throwing a surprise party for Lacus, although he wasn't sure he could still remember her birthday, it was strange how easily people could drift apart.

"I was wondering whether you could do some mock battles with me?"

"...what's wrong Kira?"

Kira sighed, there was obviously no way he could get about having Athrun help him with something like this without making him suspicious. Athrun would never be able to handle some second rate lie, after all Kira had strongly made it clear that he was never getting into a mobile suit again, strange how little time it took to change his resolution.

"There's something I need to do, I can't tell you about right now but...I need to do this myself."

"Will I ever find out what it was?"

"No."

Athrun stood up, "As a friend Kira, I will help you, however as a member of Orb and bodyguard to Cagalli Yula Athna, I must warn you that if whatever you're doing puts this country at risk for some selfish desire, I will kill you."

"Is that your Justice?"

Athrun seemed slightly taken aback by that question, but Kira answered for him, "Not quite I suppose, that is your reason to continue to live."

"It is both."

"Does Cagalli have some time after this for a small chat?"

Athrun gave Kira a smile, "Anytime for her younger brother."

"Older brother mind you."

**--------------------------------------------------**

Murrue Ramius followed Lacus into a some kind of mobile base. It was relatively small compared to Morganraete where she had been working for the last while, but the equipment was up to standard and...it reeked of coffee.

"I'm guessing Andrew is also here then."

Lacus gave off a small giggle and pointed up towards Bartfeldt who was directing some men on the construction project of a mobile suit that looked awfully familiar to the Murasume.

"That's what I'm here to see?"

"**YDI-001 - Mushashi**, based on the design of Orb's Murasume with certain distinguishable differences." Lacus smiled.

Ramius looked at the blue mobile suit, the thrusters on the back resembled an awful lot to that of a Gin, asides from that, what was also different was that this suit had 6 beam sabers located, 2 at the standard area of the waist, 2 on the forearms, and 2 placed pointing downwards at the side of the heel joint.

"It also seems to remind me of Aegis."

Lacus nodded briefly and looked up at Bartfeldt, "Despite being in Orb, most of us working on this project were former ZAFT soldiers, so certain aspects of the knowledge can only come based off what we learned back then, which is why the main frame structure is taken from the Murasume."

"Now the important question, why are you building this?"

Lacus turned to look at Ramius, "Just as the former Orb required power to accomplish its ideals, just as we in the war required power in order to bring about peace, Kira will need power in order to find his truth."

"The truth about..."

"The answer, to why he should be alive."

Ramius sighed, she could understand what Lacus meant, however, "That's an awful lot of power for one question."

"That is because it's a very large question."

**---------------------------------------------------**

The chief of programming at Morganraete welcomed Kira and Athrun in, he wasn't trying to hide how excited and grateful he was for what they were going to do for him. The legendary pilots of war, helping with gathering data, for him.

Athrun had managed to find some time on the same day after Cagalli had been escorted back to her residence, _well she had plenty of paper work left over anyways, not like we would have done anything together today._

However being in Morganraete itself made him start to wonder, Athrun wasn't quite sure he would like this idea as much he had told himself to begin with, which wasn't even much.

The chief led the two of them to a set of machines in a lab, it looked like an exact replication of a mobile suit's cockpit.

Athrun took a seat in one and the hatch slowly sealed up leaving him in darkness, meanwhile Kira took another.

Inside the cockpit, Kira could feel his hands tremble, it had started ever since he had truly realized that somehow, he of all the people who died throughout the war, had survived through everything. He became afraid, what it was, he wasn't even quite sure, but from that day he couldn't focus in a cockpit, that was mainly the reason he refused any requests until now.

Kira slowly lifted his face up and watched as the screen and controls came to life. He could recognize the suit he was supposed to be in as soon as parts of it showed up on display, it was Strike, and not too far from him he could see the Aegis, and below him he could see an island.

In that instant something triggered in Kira as memories flowed within him, pain, sorrow, regret and hatred. His quivering paused as he held the controls tightly, it seemed more as though it was unconscious, but Kira had become a soldier.

Meanwhile Athrun experienced something familiar, he remember Nicol's death, he shook the sensation out of his head making sure the emotions wouldn't cloud him from reality, after all it was all in the past now, it was over already.

"Kira, you ready?."

Athrun looked up at his screen to see Strike charging full speed at him, instintively Athrun reacted by combating back. Their beam sabers collided with each other and Athrun used the momentum to pull some distance away from Kira.

"Kira! What are you doing?"

"ATHRUN!" The voice screamed through from the communications line, Athrun could feel the blood boil within him.

"KIRA!" Before his logical process could take over, Athrun became completely enticed by the heat of the battle. Aegis' thrusters roared to life as he launched himself forward towards Strike.

**----------------------------**

Kira found that as he was fighting Athrun, it was more surreal than he had expected, the fighting wasn't done so much by him as it was by his instincts, he had gone beserk to put it simply.

Kira jetted his suit back and landed it on a small hill top, hoping that both him and Athrun would be able to clear their heads for a few moments. However Athrun, who was also caught by his emotions, chased after Kira. The beam cannon of the transformed Aegis blew straight through Strike's left arm.

Kira snapped, "I can't DIE HERE!" _No that's not right this isn't real..._

Before he could convince himself, his body and spirit reacted first, Strike deflected another beam by sacrificing its legs in a chain sequence of moves which placed him on top of Aegis on the ground.

"ATHRUN!" Strike brought down his saber right into the cockpit of Athrun, but before he could strike it down deep enough, he found that Athrun had sliced off Strike's arm with Aegis' leg saber.

Aegis use its propulsion and pushed itself off the ground and into the air, it then cut its propulsion and came plumetting back down with its two remaining sabers aimed at Strike.

Kira took his hands off the control, it was over, he was going to die. _No that's not true..._

He welcomed it, if this was the end then he would no longer have to bother with his answer, it wouldn't matter to him anymore why he was still alive, because he wouldn't be.

**-------------------------------------**

Everything went dark, and for a moment in both cockpits, the only visible sound was a very loud panting.

Kira's hands began to quiver again as he tried to wipe off the sweat that had build up on his forehead. The door on his cockpit opened to reveal the face of the chief programmer, "Terribly sorry about that, it seems we had a slight overload in the transfer of data, it was certianly quite some moves you pulled out there."

Kira tried to stand up and collapsed back into the seat, thankfully the chief had already gone over to check up on Athrun. Kira tried again, this time hold onto the side for support. He climbed out of the cockpit to see Athrun doing the same, Athrun was clearly a lot calmer and well composed.

_Well he was a official soldier after all...was I ever one at any point?_

He waved to Athrun, Athrun waved back.

They wouldn't talk about what they felt or what they said that day, they would both try their best to forget about it, "Same time tomorrow?"

Athrun looked astonishingly at Kira as if he had finally turned insane, "You're serious huh..."

Kira nodded.

Athrun jumped onto the ground as Kira slowly climbed down, "Fine, but next time come prepared."

Kira felt hesitant at how to answer him, although he never had to, Athrun walked out before he could say anything.

**-------------------------------------**

Kira breathed in deeply as he sat in the cockpit of his new mobile suit, ORB-00 Musashi. It had finally come to the point where he felt ready for what he was going to face.

His hands fell around for the cold but familiar touch of the cockpit, he could almost remember moments of the past where he lay within the Freedom and Strike, each moment wavering him back and forth in front of the division line between life and death.

Lacus waved to him lightly from outside the cockpit window, it seemed to Kira almost as if Lacus was some mastermind behind some grand scheme, whether good or bad. But he had trusted more than his life to her once, and he still wasnt dead, guess there was no harm in doing it again.

"Kira Yamato, Murasume, Ikkimasu!"

The feel certainly was different than the way he felt it in simulation, the light shock from the vibrating cockpit he had practiced with had now turned into a full throttle, he had to admit that he wasnt quite as used to it as he had hoped he would be.

**Coordinates: 0.998, 1.367  
**

Just one more time, Kira had to find out what it meant to live, to fight, what he had fought relentlessly for. He would find his answer the way he had for far too long, on the battlefield, one more time...

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LN: Ok well finally, the reason I hadnt written anything was cause uhhhh...well im lazy, come on its summer vacation for me, spare me...

Chibi-Athrun: But you know you stopped working on this back in like...ewww a long time ago...

LN: The point is I got it done (CA: At last!) and I'll keep on working at it, at a faster pace hopefully, the story's picked up some good pace and I work better when it's like that.

Chibi-Athrun: Well we'll see you all next time, if one comes around, to find out just what exactly is going to happen to Kira.


	3. Remember those who lived

LN: Ironically I started writting this as soon as I posted the second chapter, I'll be really interested to see when I get it done by.

Chibi-Athrun: Sometime next year?

LN: I shudder to think about it.

Chibi-Athrun: Well whatever, but honestly, my counterpart should get more air time.

LN: Well technically you're the counterpart.

Chibi-Athrun: The point is, more air time.

LN: Don't worry, you'll get your air time, we'll stuff Athrun in some cheap ass grunt suit and have him shot down eventually.

Chibi-Athrun: NOOOOOOOOOOO!

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**Remeber those who lived**

**-----------------------------------------**

Palevillia was a nation that had declared its independence from the Atlantic Federation from even back before the war had begun. However, the reason the Federation had let go of such a vast and potent country was because Palevillia carried too many problems on its own to be assilmilated.

The country resided amongst the other middle-east countries, many of which were powerful and wealthy countries, as such trade was a common tool of income for the people of Palevillia. However, as time passed by, a consequence that had never been previously thought of arose. The interaction with various cultures had stimulated the need for cultural development in their own country, this brought about the beginning of chaos to the country, as only those who had been born after the beginning of trade held this view, while those who stood at the peak of the government with control and power felt that the country would need greater economical and technological support in order to maintain their standard.

The issue brought conflict to the country in a furious and fast sweep, the topic burned across the minds of everyone in Palevillia, which was more important, cultural or technological development. The government was unable to act fast enough to make some degree of compromise with these two views, as such the youths of the country quickly arose to bring up the PDOC(Palevillia Development of Cultural influences).

At first the organization held on tightly to its views of encouraging government changes through rallies, protests and things of such nature. However as the war began people, it was almost as if a psycological disease had began to spread, soon protests and rallies lead to violet campaigns as the youth found that they could not endure their mental isolation having been confined in their country.

A report later argued that PDOC had been continously supplied with weapondary from handguns to mobile armor by the organization known as Blue Cosmos, in hopes that certain government members who were coordinators could be killed within the conflict.

After the war the situation had not changed, the country was still at war with itself, however due to the assasination of various heads of the government, the structure of the country had begun to collapse, public services, transportation, repairs, trade...

People began to find ways to other countries as they felt that Palevillia was doomed to collapse very soon, the people had lost their trust and basic necessities were beginning to become harder to find.

The departure of the common people left two major groups to struggle within the confines of the country, one was what had become an extremist version of PDOC, the AMCO(Armed Military Coup d'etat Organization), the other was a faction that existed purely to resist against AMCO, calling themselves "AMCO Down". The struggle between these two factions had left the country desolate, despite no longer being supplied by Blue Cosmos, the previous technological expertise of the people of the country had allowed them to prolong and even advance this war to the next level. The earth had now been tainted with various forms of trial explosives and chemical containmination.

"War..." Kira gazed out from the cockpit window of Murasume as he flew past on more desolate looking piece of land. Having entered a good distance into Palevillia, he was somewhat surprised that a country in such turmoil could still provide enough resources for a anti-government organization.

His visual screen indicated the prescense of two jets as they steered right pass his mobile armor, catching him slightly by surprise. The system had reacted slower than what would be safe under battle situation, but then again, the jets seemed to move strangely fast for looking like some really old model.

**"This is the national security defense of the nation of Palevillia, you have intruded upon our air space, return outside territory within 5 minutes all we will see this as an act of agression."**

"What?" There was absolutely no way that he could exit Palevillia territory now that he was this far in within 5 minutes, they should have been fully aware of the circumstances, and at the same time, it was becoming suspicious to Kira that national security let him in this far before calling themselves in and that this country still had a national security with the state it was in.

"This is Yula Yamato of the foreign affairs division of ORB, I have been sent officialy to investigate matters in Palevillia."

**"Palevillia has received no such notice from the nation of ORB, if you do not remove yourself within 3 minutes, this will be seen as an act of agression to our country under the name of ORB."**

"What the hell are you talking about? Since when does Palevillia even have national security defense division?"

-------------------------------

The pilot on the jet read the incoming data on his screen, his eyes seemed to glow in anticipation as he read on, by the time he finished, it had become bluntly obvious that he had become very excited.

"Com Link On, this is Wrath 3, can you hear me HQ?"

**"This is HQ, has the identity of the craft and personnel been identified?"**

"The craft has been identified as a new model mobile armor capable of reversing into a mobile suit, as for the personnel known as Yula Yamato...he is the legendary pilot from the last war, Kira Yamato of the Archangel."

**"...You are positive?"**

"He was able to react, even if slightly to our new model J-5s, if even the computer says its him, than thats already too much to be a coincidence."

**"This is HQ, signaling all Wrath units in the area DQ2. The yellow unit in the skies above you is a new transformable mobile suit/armor. Your orders are to destroy it, take caution in your procedures as the pilot is that of Freedom from the last war, however, now that he no longer has Freedom this will be our perfect opportunity to declare our Military Establishment of Palevillia to the entire world. Mission Commence."**

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**"5 minutes have ended, as you are unable to clear from the airspace of Palevillia, we shall declare you an enemy of our country."**

"Damn it!"

The J-5s came around once again, this time Kira knew they weren't going to be just flying by him.

"Weapons manual open."

**2x .45mm low output cannons  
Connect for .45mm Vulcan laser cannon(Anti-Fortress Class)**

**2x beam sabers**

**.20mm beam rifle with scope**

**Standardized Murasume projectile artilery**

Kira shifted his speed panel and skidded past the two J-5s whom shot by him without doing anything this time.

"Wheres the transformation control...ahh here."

The Murasume automatically began transforming into a mobile suit, surprisingly to Kira, the process was relatively smooth considering how fast he was going.

The Murasume's aiming system was superior enough to lock onto the J-5s despite their speed with help from Kira, however, out of the 3 shots only one came close to hitting the mark while the latter two fell quite wide.

Immediately following, Kira felt the vibrating shock from the impact from multiple missles, the barrage of explosions reminded Kira that this suit was not equipped with phase shift, he couldn't do this like the way he had with Strike or Freedom.

Kira concentrated deeply, he was going to have to make up for the difference in mobility and numbers with his skills, thankfully being the ultimate coordinator and all kinda helped with that.

_Configure standardized energy transfer to beam + saber -40 TJQ/nanounit_, _reconstruct cooling structure of beam riffle, adjust ratio down, transfer spare energy to engine thrusters, retain thrust level at CQQ 200. _

Murasume shut down its engines allowing it to avoid several shots that had come its way, once it had attained height below the J-5s the thrusters came back to life. As the two J-5s took time to circle around to Murasume again, it raised its beam rifle.

_Booster thrust, transitional energy apply, time - 50 seconds. _

The thrusters exploded in a fury of energy as Murasume raised its height at a significantly faster rate than before, meanwhile one of the J-5 made a spin cycle and as it made ready to head back down realized that the Murasume was right underneath it and the two were facing each other.

The J-5 fired off two missles and performed a nose dive right into the Murasume assuming it would get out of the way. However, the Murasume came up faster than the pilot had expected, just as the missles ejaculated, Murasume was already right in front of the J-5.

Feeling desperate, the J-5 made a sharp turn past the left side of the Murasume making the missles come out off course.

Kira spun the Murasume 180 degrees and fired off three shots that came out almost consecutively this time, the adjustion to the cooling system and power of the beam now allowed for rapid fire, despite the drop in power emission. Considering that Kira wasn't aiming to kill, it was probably better that way.

Two shots managed to skid off the wings of the J-5 while the last created an implosion in the engine sending the jet plummeting down with the pilot evacuating from his craft.

Meanwhile the other J-5 pilot watched in astonishment, "Impossible, in just a few minutes his performance shaped up so well he could already adapt to the gap in mobility?"

**"This is Wrath 3, HQ. Wrath 2 has just been shot down."**

**"This is HQ, stand by Wrath 3, Test dummy Wraith is in your vicinity."**

"Wraith? That new mobile armor? If what they say about it is true, then I doubt even Kira Yamato would stand a chance against that suit."

----------------------

Kira focused the screen on the downed J-5, he managed to confirm that the pilot was still alive and that he could still pull out enough efficiency at this point with the Murasume.

"At this point I can either find some way to stealthly enter Palevillia without detection, or I can leave the country and find more diplomatic means of re-entering. However, seeing how Palevillia has reacted so far, I highly doubt diploma is going to do much work."

A beacon interrupted Kira's thoughts, being afraid that it was the remaining J-5, Kira steered his mobile suit a bit further away.

Glimpsing past a mountain top just a bit to the right of him, he managed to notice a relatively large machine heading his way, from its structure, it appeared to be a mobile armor. The mobile armor was a large green coated spiral, much like a spinning top. On the surface it seemed to be equipped with multiple small beam weapons while what looked like a control pod was held at the top of the spiral covered by a glass-like barrier. The only other visible weapon were two scorpion like tails that extended out near the bottom of the spiral and seemed to have beam weapons attached.

"Computer, Scan."

**No Matching Data Found For Unit.**

_One remaining jet and now an unknown unit, seems like they want to take me down pretty badly._

Kira rotated and moved the Murasume so that it could now view both of the two units, surprisingly to Kira, the J-5 had not moved its position in order to get around to his blind spot again.

_He's staying out of this? It would certainly be more beneficial for me, but that would mean that this new mobile armor would carry mass amounts of devastating power if the jet is staying out of our way. _

"Maybe retreating is a better option at this point. I should still be able to get away clean like this."

Just as the thought was slipping through his mind, the new unit, wraith, opened up the lower section of its main body, the top of the spiral split in 4 directions as if being peeled away and in turn, revealed a large thrusters surrounded by mini versions at the sides.

Kira could hardly describe the sudden boost of speed performed from what was a turtle like mobile armor that he had taken it for moments ago. Before he had much time to react, wraith had already slipped right past him and positioned itself behind the Murasume.

Kira the Murasume forward and into a spiral 180 degrees at the same time, as the Murasume's camera caught the new unit, Kira fired his beam rifle at the two long tail like objects which he supposed would be the second most deadly, but would be the easiest weapon to disarm.

He was more worried about the multiple beam weapons attached to the surface of the unit as there was an enormous amount of them, if they were all beam cannons, he could very well die after shooting off his shot. Something in his instincts told him they weren't, but then again, those were getting rusty.

As the beam reached closer though, Kira found his answer. The beam did not hit its target, instead at about 10m away from the mobile armor, the beam curved around what seemed to be an invisible sphere and ended up completely off track.

_Beam shield? Some kind of reflector, seems to be like the one used in the Forbidden, in that case..._

Kira performed a quick flip forwards and shifted his mobile suit to the back of wraith past the dome at the top. He was rather certain that wraith hadn't flipped sides along with him, but considering he looked the same from all angles, it was kind of hard to tell.

This time he aimed three shots at seperate places on the main body. The same thing happened, the beam was reflected and curved around a spherical shield.

_Ok well...not Forbidden, more like Artemis...unfortunately I'm no Blitz and the size proportion is way off._

At least now Kira no longer had to worry about the mini beam devices on the surface of the unit, obviously they were there to project the beam shield.

However if this unit was designed like Artemis, at least Kira would not have to worry about a combination of attack and defense, since beams should not be able to penetrate from the inside. All he had to make sure of now was that the unit doesn't try to ram him using superior boosts speed, and he could probably manage to put some physical hits on the unit.

To Kira's utter astonishment, wraith's two tail cannons pointed towards the Murasume, and without the shields disenganging themselves, a thousand green beams exploded in front of Murasume.

Kira managed to put the Murasume's arms in front of the cockpit before the beams made contact with him.The barrage of beams pierced and exploded in and around the Murasume. Kira felt a tinge of despair brush him as the thrusters failed to respond to him when he attempted to pull the Murasume back, that one attack by wraith had managed to cripple the Murasume, even should the barrage cease all of a sudden, Murasume would go down without any help. Relization dawned upon him and was backed upon by sparks that began to twirl in an insulting manner announcing his defeat.

_Attache .45mm Vulcan beam cannon, full energy conversion to cannon._

In a last pitted effort, Kira was betting his all in the hands of the beam cannon that Ramius had assured him as, very lethal, of course even should it work, chances are he would still fall and the impact would kill him, however, Kira's ego needed a good boost and should he survive the fall, it would give him more chances of survival.

The door to Kira's cockpit sprung open to his will, now that his main cameras had ceased to work, it became the only way he could still operate his unit. However, without the cameras, he would no longer have an aiming system to rely on, in truth it was almost like shooting blind.

_Increase angle of elevation by 10 degrees, elevate Murasume's elbow to compensate for structural failure, reposition body position to receive recoil, change gravity point to zero axis, use the base engine as the pivot point..._

Kira's mind began to slip further, but he was conscious enough to feel that the thrusters on the Murasume had died out and the mobile suit was already plummetting towards its ultimate fate. The blood that had streamed onto of his right eye distracted his vision, but his other remaining senses told him that he was still on target, plus even if he wasn't there was no time to adjust anything now, once Murasume begins to lose the applied force from the thrusters, gravity would tear apart the structure of the unit.

_Fire..._

The familiar tazer sound of the beam made him jump a little from his seat, the sensation was quite different when listening to it from an open cockpit. The blazing beam streaked right towards wraith, which hovered there motionlessly, which meant either the pilot had absolute confidence towards the power of his shields, or this was some kind of weakless of wraith's.

As the .45mm beam reached precisely 10m within wraith's radius, a small distortion could have been seen under electromagnetic guidance , that the invisible spherical shield bent inwards as if a ripple had been created. But Kira's ultimate efforts failed in the end as the beam curved around the ripple it had created and shot towards the ground, leaving wraith completely unscarred.

The recoil effect shot Murasume's arm apart from its main body and shattered it in the process. The plummet was now clearly noticeable, Kira stared out the open cockpit while parts of Murasume began to become undone all around him. In an almost undramatic way,it was kind of sad that he couldn't see the ground as he fell, but it was nice he could see the sky, to Kira, the sky was calm, peaceful, and it was where his freedom lay.

**September 12, C.E 87, 12:45a.m  
ORB Murasume - Destroyed  
Pilot, Kira Yamato - MIA**

**---------------------------------------------------**

LN: Phew that actually took a while, but its kind of weird, I mean, is it just me or are the chapters getting longer. O and btw, MIA is missing in action for those of you who might not have heard of it or forgotten.

Chibi-Athrun: Maybe it just feels that way cause you spread your work on them over such a long period of time.

LN: I can't help it, its my last year of highschool.

Chibi-Athrun: SO? Its my...uhhh...10th passage in this whole fanfic, whats your point?

LN: It's no use talking to animated character in a fanfiction who says what I want.

Chibi-Athrun: O please, I so have self will.

LN: Well whatever, I've left you all with a cliff hanger, enjoy it, cause its gonna be another long while before the next chapter comes out.

Chibi-Athrun: In the next chapter we'll be getting Meer Campbell making her guest star appearance, unless LN changes his mind of course, then you'd all get hyped up, if you are, over nothing. Personally I hate that girl.

LN: Sayonara.


	4. Festival of Dance

LN: Wheeeeeee!

Chibi-Athrun: Whee what?

LN: I don't know, can't a man just whee for no reason whatsoever?

Chibi-Athrun: Well yes if you put it that way, but it makes you seem kinda retarded.

LN: Retardity is over-rated.

Chibi-Athrun: That's not even an actual word.

LN: Like that matters either, language is over-rated.

Chibi-Athrun: You know, that's what I'm made of, it makes me rather uncomfortable...

LN: Alright thats it, this is a stupid conversation and I'm getting a new side-host next time.

Chibi-Athrun: NOOO! You can't do this to me! You made me!

LN: Uhh... that's kinda the point...

-----------------------------------

**Festival of Dance**

-----------------------------------------

**"This is HQ, report your status Wrath 3."**

The pilot of the lone J-5 looked towards the armless ruin of Murasume that had plummeted down on the ground. His experience as a solider told him that from the height and angle the Murasume fell at, it was possible for the pilot to have survived the fall. His instincts told him that Kira Yamato was definately alive.

He was in no position to report to HQ based on his instincts, plus he was almost upset that the showdown with the legendary Kira Yamato had to end so abruptly, him looking more like the defeated despite Kira being the one that had fallen.

_I won't let it end like this, I will defeat Kira Yamato myself..._

**"Wrath 3 Report."**

**"Wrath 3!"**

**"Oi! Dalien!"**

Dalien snapped back to reality, he had not beat Kira Yamato, now all he could hope was that the pilot could survive until they were both ready for a second round.

"This is Wrath 3, the hostile mobile suit has been taken down by unit Wraith, the unit is confirmed to have ceased all functions, the livelyhood of the pilot is unknown."

**"Return to base Wrath 3, a ground unit will take over to retrieve the corpse."**

_Live on Kira Yamato, my boiling blood needs to be satisfied._

-------------------------------------------

A soft hand caressed his cheek bringing him back into the world. Kira was still alive, yet again, and it puzzled him even more, why would he keep surviving, was some divine force truly asking something of him before he was able to die?

"I'm alive..."

"Actually you're dead, how's it feel to be in hell?" The voice seemed to somewhat resemble Lacus', but it wasn't hers, it was more alive and less calm, but he could sense the same kindness from the voice.

"Interesting."

"Too bad then, cause Lucifer just canceled your visit." Kira felt his head thump towards the floor as what seemed to have been his pillow was pulled out from under his head. The pain stung his eyes open, realizing that in fact his comfortable pillow was a pair of legs and hell was in fact a wooden shed with a chair, table and enough kitchen ware to cook with.

Kira struggled slowly to his feet, his wounds stung, but they were better than he thought they would be considering he fell down from pretty high.

His eyes drifted around the little wooden house a bit more before they settle upon the face of his rescuer. She was a girl who seemed his age, shoulder length gray hair fell smoothly at her side while sets of freckles dotted the outline of her pink cheeks.

"Uhhh..." Her face began to slowly burn red as Kira's gaze kept on her making her seem like a shy girl who would have never expected this much attention from the opposite sex.

Noticing the awkward moment he had caused, Kira turned away blushing, it surprised him slightly that he was still capable of something so simple and pleasant.

"S...sorry about that, I'll go fix you something to eat." It became quickly apparent to Kira that the girl seemed to lack a certain degree of self confidence.

"My name is Kira."

The girl stopped in her tracks halfway between the door and him after picking up the sheets he had used, "I...I'm Meer, Meer Campbell."

"That's a good name."

"My grandmother gave it to me before she passed away, my mom always told me that it was the name an angel had given to my grandmother for me." Meer giggled a bit, then she walked towards the kitchen accessories, putting her sheets in one of the drawers and began making a small assortment of foods .

Kira staggered towards the chair and was about to sit down when he realized that he was more or less naked.

"Meer-san..."

"Meer-CHAN, don't call me san, it makes me feel old. If it's about some cloths, try the ones on top in the second drawer over there."

Kira staggered some more towards the drawer, obviously Meer wasn't as considerate of injured people as she looked like she would be. Kira wondered whether making her more open about things would make his stay more painful.

Halfway between a tug and rip, Kira managed to pull out a white outfit from the drawer. It was a light overall, a white T-shirt matched a pair of black sweat pants. Once he had put it on, he realized the fabric and shape was perfect to allow someone like him to walk...well stagger around comfortably.

As he finished and got back to his seat, Meer came around with a tray of small assortments of food, Kira for one was very surprised that she even had that much provision, apparently she must have pulled it out from some invisible drawer that he couldn't see.

"How is it?" Meer was rather cheerful, after all this was the first time she had cooked for someone besides herself, it was rather pleasant.

"It's good."

"Boy you're really dry and cut aren't you..."

Choosing to not answer the question, Kira returned to his food, in all honesty it was good, after crash landing and all, it was good to feel some homemade food.

Which reminded Kira, "Where am I?"

"Most people ask that right from the start, you're not very typical." Meer walked towards the lone window in the room and pulled open the blinds. In front of Kira's eyes spread the view of towering mountains, and it seemed from the landscape that the house was located in a valley. Most surprisingly of all, there were other houses constructed along side this one, Kira had imagined Meer to live solely on her own, but now that he thought about it, it would have been far too difficult to do so.

"How big is this village?" Kira needed to know how secure his existence was, if this village was closely linked to the military organization that took him down, he would have to escape, and quickly.

"It's not too big, and isolated because we're in the valley. For that matter this will be the last day we spend here anyways. Which is why the others decided to let me pick you up, despite that the military has already come by.

"They have?" If these people had gotten hurt or killed because of him, Kira would have felt very bad, especially since he still didn't think his life was worth much.

"Don't worry, it was before I found you by the woods. Naturally they searched, but as you can imagine, they didn't find anything."

Kira finished up some more food and stood up, "I should leave, they may come back again."

Meer was rather calm at the statement and simply smiled and gestured for him to sit back down, "Don't worry, like I told you, we're leaving this village after tonight anyways."

"Bu-"

"Certainly not because of you, so don't worry about that either. You see, ever since the New Pallevillia World Order began to plant firmly in this country, it's been getting really heated around here, military coming around to villages like this for someone like you shows it." Kira wondered whether she knew that he had piloted a mobile suit and was more or less a soldier.

_A soldier...am I?_

"Wait, New Pallevillia World Order? I've never heard of that before."

"Not surprising, the organization was the leftovers of AMCO."

_Leftovers of that military establishment? Impossible,the military power they possesed there surpasses those of ORB, even if it is still a small organization, theres no way a country like this could have gained the technology and resources necessary for that kind of construction._

A knock at the door brought both Kira and Meer out of their own individual thoughts, Kira jerked a bit as he repressed the urge to perform a submission on the guy who would pass through the door. Undeniably he was still a bit on edge, however he trusted Meer enough that those in her village would also have no intent to harm him. At the moment anyways.

"It's time Meer, if you want to t-" The man's eyes drifted towards Kira's in a moment of astonishment. "Hahaha! Even better, take him with you now that he's all good."

Meer blushed in front of the man, "Mr.Tablos, it's not what you think it is!"

Tablos waved his hand at her as he headed back out and joined what Kira could tell to be some sort of festivity.

Meer gestured to Kira shyly with her hand out, "It's not what he said, I just want you to enjoy the last day with us."

Kira smiled at Meer's blush and took her up on her offer as she pulled him from his seat. Her hand felt warm and firm as it gripped his, rather coincidently he stumbled a bit and fell into Meer's embrace.

"For some reason I get this feeling you're doing it on purpose."

Kira shook his head nervously, especially because he wasn't quite sure what the answer to that question was.

After taking some trouble to set themselves straight up again, they managed to trud into a circular ring of dancers and a large campfire stationed in the center. For Kira, this was the first time he had seen something like that, he had heard about it from Cagalli before, but to think that there were still people who celebrated that way.

"Hey everybody! Meer made it!"

"...and look who she's with..." Meer tried to ignore that quiet comment, however, the stare from others and the whispers that aroused from further back only made her blush turn more crimson.

Kira felt that it was about time to say something to help the situation, "Ever-"

"**SHUT UP!**" Obviously, Meer had her own way of doing things...

Laughter bursted out from all around, Meer practically dropped Kira on the spot and started going over to other people in an attempt to make sure they would remain silent permanetly.

Kira felt his strength drain from him as he settled himself on the grounds of which he fell, and laughed really hard at the scene around him. The happiness of these simple people with simple joys had caught on to him, and he was glad that this was what peace looked like, even though he understood this already was momentary. He liked it, he liked peace.

_Shizukana kono yoru ni anata wo matteru no  
Ano toki wasureta hohoemi wo tori ni kite  
Are kara sukoshi dake jikan ga sugite  
Omoide ga yasashiku natta ne._

Kira eyes fell wide onto the stage as he witnessed Meer singing the song he had heard many times in that tiny cottage. In the moment of confusion, he almost believed for a second that Lacus was right there on the stage, but after a few seconds he could tell that the song was different.

"So how is it Kid? She sing good? I heard Meer learned that song a long time ago from someone, and it's the main reason she's going to move to PLANT after we leave."

"Really? It sounds...good."

The man emitted something halved between a hiccup and a giggle, then he drove himself back with his company and left Kira alone.

_Hoshi no furu basho de  
Anata ga waratte irukoto wo  
Itsumo negatteta  
Ima tookutemo  
Mata aeru yo ne_

The difference had become more vivid, when Lacus sang, there was always an immense sense of calm and peace that surrounded her audience. What Meer brought to the stage instead was life and joy, the truth was that it was hard to measure the two on an actual scale, but he realized that right now in that moment, he was really enjoying Meer's song.

Soon the singing ended and Meer prancefully hopped back to Kira's side, her face slightly flushed under the campfire.

The festivistes delved on for quite a good while longer, Meer helped Kira retire early as he began to doze off now and then. In an almost laughable fashion, the crowd watched as Meer struggled very deftly to lift Kira back to her house, naturally, they were enjoying the event in more ways than one.

---------------------------------------

Dalien leaned against his barren room within the military compound, a third class officer and all he got was a metal shed with a rusting toilet, at least he wouldn't need to share with the rest of the people who carried god knows what diseases on them.

Despite the advancement of technology, NPWO was corrupt down to its core, Dalien never got over his fascination about how an organization led by the tops that they had could make it this big. People had one track minds, no one shared the same goal...although there was one common desire. All of the militants of NPWO had experienced war, they were all veterans, and having found themselves with nothing better to do in the peace time, they wanted more...bloodshed, death, killing without consequences, they were born from the battlefield.

The higher ups loved the idea, brainless soldiers who got on mass slaughtered instilled fear, as long as they could provide a good fight, the soldiers could keep stupid.

"Thinking deep again Dalien?"

"Why wouldn't you let me join the ground squad search?" Dalien ignored the figure of Murasume that still stuck to the back of his mind, he wanted that challenge, wraith had stolen it from him.

"Because I know you, and you're bound to do something rash, lusting after a fight like that isn't good for your health."

Dalien laughed maniacally as though it was Marco who was insane, "Why the hell are we all here then?"

Marco sighed, "Well, you got me there, I guess we're all kind of insane."

Marco headed out for the door, it was rather apparent that though insane, he hadn't quite fallen as far into the well, "By the way...have you taken a look at the suit?"

Dalien opened his eyes in interest, "The one that's almost done? What was it called...Gundam?"

"That's the technical name, the official name is Repulse."

"Is that even a word?"

"To re-persue, re-unite, re-lust, and well...something else or rather, the point is, some artistic mechanic named it. The test run is soon you know, maybe taking at look at the fastest suit in history will help take your mind off Yamato."

Dalien stood up and snorted, "I'll take a look, but I can guarantee you, I'll never see anything faster than Freedom."

--------------------------------------

Morning had come by, the sun shone brightly onto Kira's face. The blinds were open and a small plate of food already lay on the table of the cabin. Meer was nowhere in sight, and now that Kira thought about it, he was sleeping on the only bed in the cabin, which would have left Meer to sleep...

_Don't think too much into it..._

Kira staggered up slowly and tested out his body, his muscles had managed to recover here and there, and although still strained he was now at least able to push himself to a soldier's abilities should it become necessary.

"You're awake?"

Kira sat down at the table and began eating as Meer came through the cabin door, carrying a good deal of luggage on her back, apparently she wasn't exaggerating when she said the village was leaving. Outside the window Kira could see it happening all around, some people had already begun to trudge away, waving goodbye to their neighbours.

"Are you leaving soon too?"

Meer shoved a last bit of clothing from the closet into her bag and nodded, "Yeah, and you? What do you plan on doing?"

"I still have business in Pallevillia."

"o..." Meer felt slightly dissapointed, she had always read it in romance novels, the beginning of beautiful love was supposed to start like this, apparently she didnt quite have the luck after all.

Kira finished his meal and was about to take the dish to the sink when he realized there wasn't one, he awkwardly looked towards Meer and held out the dish and accessories.

Meer bursted out laughing at the sight, "Haha! And here I was... Haha! Leave it there Kira, I can't fit anything else anyways."

Kira blushed as he dropped the plate and fork on the table, examining the cabin he had spent a close encounter to death in, he walked out with Meer.

"O? He leavin with you Meer? I can't say I saw that coming, you youngsters move right along after all."

"Mr.Tablos, Kira has things he's got to do here, he's not absent minded and carefree like you."

Tablos looked at Kira surprisingly, "Here? In Pallevillia, you do realize what state this country is in, besides you're still hurt."

Kira shook his head, "This is something I have to do, after all I came all the way here to do just this."

Tablos shook his head, "Gosh, youngsters." He kept walking, joining the larger pack of marchers.

Meer handed Kira a small duffle bag, "Some food, it'll last you only a few days, and I put a knife in there too. The village can't provide anything more in terms of a weapon."

"Sorry...and thank you."

Meer laughed as she began to dash off towards the rest of the villagers, walking south, they were close enough to the next country to make it there in a day or two.

Kira waved at her, and then on a sudden stroke of impulse, "You sing good Meer!"

Meer stopped in her tracks and twirled around, and for a moment Kira felt the same essence from her that he had felt from Lacus, Cagalli and all the women he had respected and loved in his life.

"I'm going to PLANT, and I'm going to become a singer! Maybe I'll see you again, and then you'll regret not coming with me!" Meer dashed off laughing again, this time not looking back. Kira wasn't sure how, but he believed that Meer had cried a bit as she said those words.

Kira moved back under one of the cabins and examined the map that Meer had given him, with a red circle marking where the NWPO military base was, it was surprisingly close, he could trek there easy before he ran out of provisions.

He raised himself up and looked towards the northern trail from the village, it would lead him into a small set of woods that he could pass through undetected, and then would come the tough part. He would have to sneak into the base somehow, if he made it that far, he would be able to secure a mobile weapon and gain some information while he was at it, then he could narrow down this whole affair and his target. Only now did he realize how vague his objective had been when he started.

Stuffing everything but the knife back into the duffle he slung it over his shoulder and placed the knife on a small strap at his side. Athrun would've been better suited to this kinda weapon, Kira had never been formally trained with the knives, but he was the ultimate coordinator, it was all good.

_Shizukana kono yoru ni anata wo matteru no  
Ano toki wasureta hohoemi wo tori ni kite_  
...

Kira spun around, it wasn't Meer, she shouldn've been too far by now for him to hear.

"Lacus..."

Kira sighed, the thought was odd, but he missed her, the silent happiness that he found hard to appreciate but he had truly enjoyed.

He began trailing off north, humming her song.

--------------------------------------------

LN: So there it is, I never thought I was actually gonna do another chapter, surprisingly what having nothing to do a few days before exam can do to your mentality.

Chibi-Cagalli: Ummmm...study?

LN: O yes, here's Athrun's replacement, and no, lets not study, cause face it, if I did, you wouldn't be existing right now.

Chibi-Cagalli: I cound start going into space-time theory and explain how it doesn't actually matter.

LN: Ok...Well...so thats no Athrun and no Cagalli, lets see how long the next side host lasts.


End file.
